Posts

Mom jeans might have a bad wrap. Obviously I blame it on misogyny- I see a connection between women’s supposed declining sexuality as they age and the tendency of our culture to look at mothers as selfless, sexless beings meant only to serve as nurturing figures for others without needs of their own. Believe me, I laughed at that SNL sketch as much as everyone else did and I still think it’s brilliant, but I am also curious about redefining what the concept of Mom jeans mean to me, which is something you can thankfully do when you make your own clothes.

Historically, Mom jeans are designed with a high waist for a snug fit that accentuates the wearer’s figure, coupled with slim legs that are comfortably loose through the knee and calf. On paper, those qualities seem like a lovely combination, but in reality, when paired with those excruciatingly tiny and awkwardly placed back pockets, the look isn’t flattering at all- it’s unsexy, fussy, matronly. While relaxing in my Morgan jeans several weeks ago, I had a thought. I love my masculine-of-centerGirlfriend/Boyfriend jeans because they are comfortable and the construction is really marvelous, but they have definitely been relegated for wear only on my most relaxed and casual days; I feel cute in them, but I don’t feel sexy. My Gingers, however, mostly get worn when I am getting dressed up and I am, as we refer to it in my household, “tryna look cute”. I wondered, Is there a middle ground? Is there a way to meld these two different jeans patterns into a look that feels every bit as comfortable and effortless as the Morgan, but with that figure flattering silhouette that my Gingers offer? Was I essentially trying to create a modern Mom jean? Could I take my knowledge of perfect pocket size and placement and push the Mom jean out of “so gross” territory and into the “so cute” realm?

Well, the only way to find out was to try(curious! ba dum ching!)

On my last trip to LA I grabbed my adjusted Ginger and Morgan patterns and brought them back with me to Savannah, then I marched myself up to my favorite brick n mortar fabric store outside of LA. It’s called Fabrika and it’s amazing; it’s an independently owned shop just down the street from my apartment downtown and, though small, it packs a big bunch. They have a lovely selection of quilting cotton and apparel fabrics, and every time I go there to pick up a random notion or tool I need, I feel sure that they are going to say “Oh, sorry, we don’t carry that”, but lo and behold, they will inevitably pull the item out of some magic hat they keep hidden in the store. I LOVE having my sewing needs met so close to home where I can literally walk out my door and get whatever it is I need within moments. Anyways, I had glimpsed this exceptionally cool denim on a previous trip to the store and knew immediately that it was perfect for my Mom jeans. The denim is bleached and SO soft, it almost feels like a brushed cotton, and although it has a nice and stable medium-weight to it, when you manipulate it in your hand it gives like tissue but bounces back without wrinkling. There is a teensy tiny amount of stretch in this denim, but not enough to accommodate the stretch necessary for skinny jeans, and I wonder if some of the stretch comes from the denim being so incredibly soft that it ends up being more flexible than an un-washed raw denim. The color of this denim is so pretty to me- it makes me think of the beach- but the hand of the denim is what ultimately won me over.

Now, for the pattern hack!

This was a lot trickier than I thought it would be, and since I have no pattern designing background, I was kind of just making wild guesses as to how to meld these patterns into one. The realization of what a complicated project this would be came when I pulled out my back leg pattern pieces and placed them on top of each other to see where I could try and blend in the lines. Apparently there would be no such thing- the Ginger is made for a stretch denim and the Morgans are made for denim with no stretch, so, while it was interesting to see how the pattern lines accounted for the difference in fabric type, it was also overwhelming to figure out where to begin to mesh them into one. In all honesty, my approach wasn’t at all scientific- I just moved forward blindly. I figured that if nothing else, I would learn something in the process.

I relied more heavily on the Morgan Jeans pattern for general shape, but I added length (about 1.5- 2 inches) to the rise so that they would be more high waisted. I added length to the zipper pieces as well, since my waist-to-hip ratio makes it difficult to pull jeans over my hips (adding more zipper length allows the pants to open up lower and gives more room for my butt to get into them). I split the difference between the waist and hip widths of the Morgan and Ginger pattern pieces because I wanted my Mom jeans to be very fitted in the waist and hip area but since I wasn’t using a stretch denim there wouldn’t be a lot of give. I purchased a jeans zipper with wider zipper tape than I am used to and I didn’t realize how much it would affect the fly when using the Closet Case File’s method of creating a zipper fly. As a result, my zipper bulges a bit at the front, but I totally understand what I can do in the future to avoid such an issue (aside from making sure I have a zipper with the standard amount of tape on each side). I added a tiny bit of extra width at the calves of the legs so that the jeans would skim my body the whole way down and not hug my thick calves (the calf area of my Morgans are about 1 cm tighter than I would like). I made a pocket stay for these jeans which entails sewing the whole pocket piece so that it is anchored to either side of the zip fly, and I LOVE it- it keeps your pockets from sliding out the tops of your pocket openings, and it also gives you a nice/tight/snug fit around your hips, which I prefer.

The most trouble I had with making these jeans were figuring out the yoke pieces in the back. I actually completed these jeans in their entirety (sans jeans button, but more on that later) and wore them around for a day before realizing I needed to do some more work on the back pieces to get the right fit. After my first day of wear, the back yoke pieces stretched out and got really bulge-y and gave me this weird bubble-butt effect that puffed up at the seams.

For my Ginger skinny jeans make, I had to redraft the yoke and waistband pieces to accommodate the big difference between my waist and hip measurements- the new pattern pieces I use now have a much deeper curve, but the seams smooth out with the stretch denim since the garment is essentially made with negative ease. I tried to make these same yoke and waistband adjustments to my Mom jeans, but they don’t translate the same to denim with no stretch. So after my first wear, I unpicked all my top stitching at the back yoke and back center seam pieces, cut out the curve of the yokes so that the lines were straighter, then re-sewed the whole thing. It worked like a charm, although I could probably stand to take out even more of the curve on a future pair.

A few others changes to make on my next pair of Mom jeans: I will probably take the seams in at the sides and back center pieces just a bit to create an even snugger fit- since my denim has no spandex, they stretch out over the course of wearing them, and if they started out a bit tighter, there might be less space for them to get bigger. I love the look and fit at the thigh and legs- they just graze my body and then drop straight down to the ankle which is a look I have always coveted in the traditional “boyfriend” jean but never been able to find for myself in RTW. I will keep those parts the same, but I will make an adjustment to the crotch area at the top of the thigh on my next pair.

As you can see in the pictures, the crotch area is a big baggy and has some weird folds and lines that start at the bottom of the zip fly. Initially I thought that maybe the rise was too long, but now I think I can fix the issue by shortening the crotch. The bulge honestly doesn’t bother me too much though, and even less now that I got so many compliments on them these jeans at the Whole Foods! The other thing I love about this make is the back pockets- they are the perfect size and they keep the jeans from looking dated. I used the pockets from my Morgans but raised them higher to accommodate the new rise of my higher waist.

These jeans look so unique to me, which is why I think they stand out enough to get compliments from strangers- they almost look like they are thrifted, because the color and texture of this denim is so vintage, but the silhouette, at least on me, feels new and modern. I think my lack of a jeans button makes them look really fresh, too- I brought a jeans button to Savannah with me but without a proper hammer and piece of wood, I couldn’t get the pieces to fit together and I accidentally busted the nail part that goes inside the button.

The first day that I wore these jeans I just used a giant safety pin that my friend had on hand to keep them closed and it worked fine except that it took me 5 minutes to get in and out of the pants every time I had to pee. Instead of hunting down another jeans button, I skipped over to Fabrika again and found a nice peach colored button instead (that also reminded me of the beach) that I sewed onto the front of my jeans and I love the way it looks. I also skipped the rivets that normally get applied to jeans and I went without the belt loops, too. Initially this was because I was being evacuated from Savannah for Hurricane Matthew and I wanted desperately to bring my new pair of jeans with me to Atlanta, but I only had like, 30 minutes to pack, and no time to make the belt loops. After wearing the jeans for a day around ATL though, I decided that the belt loops were unnecessary and that I liked the stream-lined look of the pants without the extra fixings, so I will keep them this way- no promises on future iterations of this hack, though!

Sending lots of thanks to Sadie Stratton, one of my co-stars on Underground, who helped me get some quick shots of these jeans in the courtyard outside her hotel! I hate asking people (who aren’t Claire) to take photos of me in my makes but she was so sweet about it and got some great shots with a very professional flare shining through in the background! Thanks, boo!

I made these overalls a couple of months ago when I was in the middle of a jeans-making blackout, and they came out SO much better than I anticipated. I knew construction would be a breeze, having made several pairs of jeans by this point (I have yet to write a post on the latest Morgan Jeans pattern by Closet Case Files– but I have made them, they are wonderful, and they will show up here soon!) but I was afraid that the fit on these overalls would be tricky to get just right, never mind the fact that there may or may not be an age appropriate cut off for wearing overalls in the first place.

OK, wait. The fashion gatekeepers of our culture says that women of a certain age/build/type/look should not be seen wearing certain items during certain times of the year/season/position of Mercury, and obviously that is such bullshit, because no one, no matter their gender, body type or age, should be shamed for wearing what makes them feel happy (unless we are talking about cultural appropriation, of course, which is ANOTHER DISCUSSION ENTIRELY). That said, it’s still hard to erase those “rules” from our minds because we are force fed them all the time across all forms of media- they are ingrained in our thoughts and they affect the way we perceive others. Whether someone’s skirt is deemed “too short” or “too long” because of their age, the lines drawn are complicated but they are there, and they always seem to be tied in with what society considers to be sexy. I don’t think there is an easy solution to any of this; I, too, feel uncomfortable when I see young kids and disproportionate numbers of women vs. men being sexualized in media, but I also know that their sexuality would not be as much of an issue if they weren’t being prayed upon in the first place. What would our world even look like if rape and molestation were not issues that we had to constantly fight against, if we didn’t have to tell kids (and adult female-presenting individuals for that matter) to be careful what they wore so that they wouldn’t be targeted by others who wanted to harm them? At what age is it okay for a person to present themselves in a way that feels comfortable for them? At what point should other people’s discomfort be pushed to the side to allow an individual the full extent of their self- expression? How much does sexuality play a part in what we wear and how we wear it, and who should determine when we are “too” young/old/skinny/fat/disabled, etc. to experiment with how we present ourselves to the world?

I am in my mid-thirties now and I know that the overalls look is not super popular with adults in my age bracket, but I feel AMAZING in them (they are my current favorite thing in my closet)! So, like others have been doing for decades, I am challenging the notion that there are things that are and are not age “appropriate”. The way we feel about ourselves when we quiet the judgemental voices in our heads should trump everyone else’s opinions, right? I am urging all of us to start unpacking the junk that society has been feeding us since we were little kids so that we can discover what tastes are influenced by our actual opinions and what tastes have simply been learned and undisputed. Here, I’ll start:

A Random Selection of Jasika’a Actual Opinions:

lace is sexy

Granties™ (aka granny panties) are also sexy

these overalls are sexy

I am not too old to be wearing these overalls

you are not too old to be wearing these overalls

I have a lot of work to do. Like, I still can’t decide if I don’t like wearing shoes with ankle straps because I think they don’t look good on me or because every time I see a shoe advertisement, the strap is wrapped around a leggy woman with a 5 inch ankle circumference and I know I can’t ever compete with that. Dismantling the patriarchy one tiny tentacle at a time is such hard work! And at the rate I’m going, I will be feeling 100% satisfied with myself by the time I am 90 years old. But better late than never, right?

Dismantling the Patriarchy One Awkward Photo At A Time

OK, some details about these sexy-alls! I did a lot of research prior to making them because the blogger world had lots of good tips and suggestions. Like

angling the back straps a bit so that they reach over your shoulders in a more natural and comfortable way without gaping.

omitting one of the side zippers since only one was needed to get them off and on.

doing a little surgery on the back pockets, which, from looking at a lot of pics online seemed like they were drafted much too small for this jelly and also placed a bit too high on the butt. I subbed the back pockets from the aforementioned Morgan Jeans pattern and lowered the placement of them substantially (it took me three tries to get them right but it was worth all the unpicking).

I graded the sizing from waist to hip and they felt a little bit snug at first but after several wears they have loosened up beautifully.

My denim is a navy and cream striped, sturdy fabric from The Fabric Store, rivets are leftover from my Ginger Jeans kits, and my overall buckles are a cheap but efficient purchase from Joann’s. I topstitched in gold thread and I love the vaguely nautical look that this gives the overalls. I made a couple of mistakes in the process of this marathon-make (the bulk of these overalls were finished in a day), like accidentally punching a rivet hole in the middle of my front pocket (oooooops!) and incorrectly tracing the pattern piece for the back strap holder so that I had to add more pieces to make it wide enough to hold the straps. For this reason I have way more bulk and topstitching lines in the back pieces, but you can’t tell just from looking at them, and it doesn’t affect the fit as far as I can tell.

My favorite thing about this make is the slim fit of the legs combined with the traditional look of the overalls. I wore different versions of overalls throughout middle school, high school and college, and they were always huge and baggy on me, which was fine at the time, but I have outgrown that look. These feel a bit more sophisticated while still being playful and fun and comfortable, and Renee thinks they look awesome 🙂 Actually, let me take a second to say thanks Renee, for inspiring this little feminist rant of mine! We had a short dialogue about overalls over IG and how old (or young) most people are who wear them, and she got me interested in breaking down my thoughts on the topic and articulating my own views on the matter! By the way, I am LOVING having sewing friends that I have met in real life, I finally feel like I am alegit member of the online sewing community!

It dawned on me recently that my interest in creating things was big enough to merit it’s own little world here on my website. Technically this site is supposed to put me in the ranks of modern actors who update their pages with information on upcoming performances and showcases and classes and resumes, but if I am honest, I have never felt quite “in the ranks” of modernity with my job anyways. My life as an actor is, in my opinion, the least interesting thing about me; I am not the most talented person in my field, and there are plenty of people with my job who are much more well known than I am. But what does make me special is my fascination with creating things with my hands, the incredible amount of patience I have with myself, my trust that there is little in this world that I cannot accomplish. So I (re)introduce to you TRY CURIOUS BLOG, a space dedicated to sharing in the delights of living a try curious lifestyle! I have Claire to thank for this fantastic title, which seems at once fitting and silly and inspiring, while giving a nice little nod to my own queer identity. So far my life in creative curiosity has acquainted me with power tools, shoes lasts, boom mics, vintage sewing machines, onigiri molds and bentonite clay, and I feel a thrill every time I have another opportunity to expand my world. The older I get, the more enthusiasm I have for the process as opposed to the final product, and this has diversified my artistic endeavors tremendously. Thanks so much for being a reader of this blog and for showing your support with comments and likes.

#MeMadeMay is a pledge by sewing/crocheting/knitting enthusiasts to wear something handmade for each day of the month of May. I have never participated in this event before, maybe because I wasn’t sure if I had enough handmade items to don, or maybe because I wasn’t sure if my makes were worthy enough. But I have since poo-poo’ed my past doubts and decided to take the plunge and join the hashtag. If nothing else, it will remind me to get better use out of some of the things I have made that I rarely wear, and remind me of the makes I have enjoyed so much that I want to make them again. I am going to try and blog for each outfit, but I may have to combine a few posts into one when I am not around my computer to do a one-a-day.

Here is one of my favorite-est simple garments I have ever made- I like that it was super quick to sew up, but it doesn’t give that frumpy silhouette that a lot of “easy-to-make” garments tend to offer. It’s made of a lightweight knit material and it has an elasticized waist, so you just pull it up or down to get it and out of it. The con to this is having to be all the way naked when you sit down to use the bathroom; the pro is that it’s loose and non-fussy, since you don’t have a zipper.What I don’t like about this jumper is the bias tape used to make the neckline and the straps. When I make this again (and I plan on doing it sooner than later cause it’s the most perfect for this hot weather we are about to be bombarded with), I will nix the bias tape and just cut the bodice pattern with extra seam allowance so that I can turn the edges under and make straps from the self fabric. The bias tape tends to pucker a bit and hang down under the arms, and it’s just not as sophisticated looking as this jumper has the potential to be. That said, this garment is so easy to wear- it works for hanging out around the house or wearing as a beach cover-up or dressing up a little with sandals.